Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/276

 —freeways as a user responsibility and the dead end road or street as a land service or community responsibility—with the great mass of roads in between deserving some support from each source since all such roads serve both purposes. In 1934, however, there were no facts at all on which even to estimate the propriety of highway finance of the day. In addition, the financial survey included road-use studies which determined from a sample of owners of vehicles in places of various sizes the usage they made of roads in the different systems. This might show, for example, the use of rural roads by urban residents compared to the use of city streets by rural residents, to the end of appraising the propriety of the allocation of funds collected by various levels of government to the several road systems. Also included in the financial surveys were road life studies, which permitted estimates of the physical life of the roads constituting the highway “plant.”

New Mexico participated in an ambitious traffic survey in 1930 with 10 other States.

Obviously, carrying out Fairbank’s bold plan would be an enormous task requiring much manpower, and it might well not have been begun had not at least three significant items conjoined.

First, the country was still deep in the Depression. “Make work” programs were being sought, and funds for highway improvements were being made available as works relief programs. One and one-half percent of these funds added to similar percentages of regular funds then made available under the Hayden-Cartwright Act provided substantial funding from highway sources.

Second, the works relief funds for white-collar projects offered Work Projects Administration (WPA) officials the opportunity to place many needy people in jobs.

Third, the surfacing of the Federal-aid systems in most States was well along toward completion, and administrators were feeling pressures to extend road improvements to the less important roads. The 1934 Act gave them this opportunity, but by requiring that the States select a secondary system, the need for the planning survey was obvious. In fact, Fairbank suggested that providing facts on which to select the secondary system would be a main object of the effort. But at the same time Fairbank bore down heavily on the idea that roads were never “completed” but must be maintained, surfaces replaced, and the whole system upgraded to meet new demands of a growing traffic. And the planning surveys were to provide the data that would permit planning this continuing process.

So with the need for this new concept—planning—constantly emphasized by the Bureau, with the procedures formulated, and with funding and manpower at hand, work was begun. The first State to get underway was Pennsylvania in September 1935, closely followed by Ohio in October of that year, and other States joining in quickly thereafter.

With this planning survey process new and not uncomplicated, it was expected that the Bureau of Public Roads would be able to help the States by sending people experienced in the earlier cooperative traffic surveys to assist in starting the field work, anticipating that States would accept the new concept but slowly, perhaps five or six States in a year. But once begun, States followed one another in quick succession, some appreciating the need and the opportunity to meet it, and others influenced by the growing number of other States undertaking the work. In fact officials of one State remarked that “We heard that ________________ [State name omitted by choice] was starting one of these planning surveys and so we thought we should have one too, whatever it is.” But for whatever reason, by September 1936, only a year after the first survey was launched, 38 States had come into agreement with the Bureau and actually started field work. The schedules varied considerably. Fairbank had envisioned completing the field work in one year (the traffic survey required that long anyway to cover seasonal variations) and spending another year in analysis. Some States did virtually complete all the field work in a year, but more commonly the several phases were spread over a longer period, and in no case was the analysis completed in 270